Hearts Full of Joy

wedding quilt

lexi & bear's wedding quilt. lexi designed it, and i'm not sure if she chose this simple pattern to make things easy for her mom, or because it was what she really wanted....maybe a little of both. it features her wedding colors and some of the fabrics from her wedding, many  from my stash and our shop, and several fun fabrics i collected in japa ~ some that i made clothing out of while we lived there. as the wedding drew near, the quilt was only about 1/3 of the way pieced, and my sweet mom offered to take it home and finish piecing it. that made it much more meaningful and fun. i was worried about finding time to get it quilted, and a friend with a long arm quilter quilted it for me. it wasn't done for the june wedding, but lots of loving hands worked on this creation.

(koji the cat loves all things hanging on the clothesline, and when i'm not looking, he'll pull down his favorites and cuddle with them.)

 

she wore my mom's wedding dress - so fun!

the littles in their wedding togs (untucked shirt and silly bands, et all)

~Nauvoo Temple

 

 

nancy's quilt

i wanted to make a fun, cheerful quilt to be a comfort to nancy during her chemo, surgery, radiation, etc.  i made one for my mom 6.5 years ago when she was fighting breast cancer too. my mom's was intricately pieced to form a pattern of hearts.

for nancy i chose an eclectic assortment of bright novelty prints (featuring two of my loves, asian and vintage - i love to mix the two) from our shop and my own fabric stash, cut large squares and pieced them together. i wanted simple quilting that added some curve and flow to angular squares. i'm happy with how this quilting turned out and how quickly it was done. i quilted during the byu/utah football game, which i wasn't as happy about - good thing the quilt meant more to me than the score of the game!

oh! there's my toe! didn't notice that until it uploaded...funny!

it's harder to choose fabrics that look good together, while making them look random, than it seems. i love the process though, and i adore working with gorgeous and interesting fabric.

one thing i should have done differently is adding another row to the length - i didn't think about the fact that she is 6 feet tall until it was quilted, but designed it for a person about my height - 7 inches shorter!

i also sent nancy a jar of red clover flowers that i picked and dried this summer. they make a tea that is supposed to work wonders on cancer.

 

little temple quilts

my friend joanna was in charge of the nauvoo women's retreat this year (in march). it was absolutley wonderful! i was recruited (happily) to organize the service projects - so fun! joanna had the great and simple ideas, i just carried them out. we made white hair bows for little girls who come to the nauvoo temple, and hoped to also make some quilts to replace the original ones made for little children to cuddle in the youth waiting center, which are getting worn. i kept hoping to find time to piece some quilt tops, and at the very last minute, and i do mean the VERY last minute (the day before and day of the service project) i was able to pull these two quilts together. i had pieced the red top last summer, set it aside and forgot about it, and fortunately found it. the blue quilt worked up quickly - it is a reproduction of an antique quilt made in the late 1800s from indigos, cadet blues, and shirtings. the ladies at the retreat tied them with pearl embroidery floss. i would have loved to have them hand quilted, but the time restraints made that unrealistic. i was surprised by how much the the women enjoyed working on the bows and the quilts.

 

flickr

my new flickr account:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/19373030@N04/

it began as a place to post my customers' creations, and i have found it a delightful way to organize my photos.

the column of photos on the right of this blog, under my etsy shop photos, are from flickriver, and show randomly changing photos from "my projects" file on flickr.

my first born

the time that our oldest will fly the nest is fast approaching. this is the sweet valentine she made for me. she is in the throes of settling on a university. you can read about her dilema on her blog.

when i was the age she is now i was approaching the end of my second semester at byu. i started young  because of a funky deadline in the school district where i entered kindergarten. i enjoyed graduating from high school and starting college young, and wanted that for her too. but she wasn't born in time for the school deadline, although she'd been threatening to come early for months and doctors promised that it was impossible for me to carry her full term (she was actually 8 days late). i always planned to have her skip a year, but she first entered american school as a sophomore, after 12 years in japan, and it didn't seem helpful or wise to move her ahead at that point. and it turns out that i am very grateful that we've had this last year with her at home because she has been most enjoyable (after several years of not being so enjoyable), and i'm grateful for the happy memories and improved relationships that we've forged this year.

here is one of her many quilt projects (she has almost as many in progress as i do), the "kansas twister", a repro pattern by judie rothermel, which she is hand piecing.

 

projects in progress

one thing i am never lacking is a very great number of projects in progress.

here are some current favorites:

 

stacks of ragged edge burp cloths made from woolies flannels (in my shop) for 2 friends from church who have recently had baby boys.

i LOVE these woolies flannels! and i finally used them to start a long-planned quilt for brock (it was originally going to be for christmas). he got the first 4 blocks as a valentine's present. 

it's a simple log cabin block with big 2 inch stripes of the incredibly cozy woolies flannel that look like wool and feel like heaven. i was inspired by an antique quilt made in the late 1800s and photographed on a bed in "house beautiful" magazine. i need to photograph that photo.

and more woolies projects:

 

i made a nightgown for gracie and pajamas for mia for christmas using woolies flannels and this vintage pattern i found on etsy. mia loves hers, and gracie has tried to live in hers for the last two months. if we do manage to get her dressed to go out, she'll change back into her nightgown as soon as we get home. it was becoming like linus's blanket, and so i made another for her to wear while the first is in the laundry, from the creamy plaid. and mia cut out her own nightgown from the blue plaid (still in progress).

i found these two 1920's era dress patterns to make dresses for my two teenagers who are double-cast as dorothy in their high school's production of 'thoroughly modern millie".

i have fun fabric (found on etsy) for the dress on the right (slightly sheer yellow with dots), that is ready to cut into. the taffeta i ordered for the dress on the left was a disappointment - completely wrong color (deep emerald green instead of a dusty pastel blue/green), and i'm working on finding a good replacement.

and this is not a project yet, but i want it to be:

 

I found this precious pattern, published in 1957 on ebay, and can't wait to use it to make a dress for gracie.

on blog posts and etsy connections

"Q is for Quilter" has finished  re-constructing her antique quilt top. so happy that the fabric from my shop went to such a worthy cause (sashing)!

 

and angela, another customer, sent me the link to her blog post about the the quilt top she made with my "antique baskets" quilt pattern and kit. the kit includes a selection of antique 1800s fabrics for the basket triangles.

 

my original quilt, my own design, above.

angela's version below

 

field trips in fiber is a blog that featured my shop, and that i am thrilled to discover. vicki has an etsy shop that is stocked with her hand dyed fabrics, and her blog is filled with helpful connections for quilters and fiber artists.

on the topic of blogging, in recent months i have found myself with too little time to blog. or so i have felt. but blogging is one of those magical things like exercise, meditaion, and journaling that are so easy to put off, so hard to make time for, but when you do make the time, it is so rewarding. i am much, much happier when i blog (and exercise, and journal, and meditate). thank you blog!

customer inspiration & appreciation

one of the things that i enjoy most about our online shops (other than lots of fabric at my fingertips at wholesale prices) is when our customers share the lovely things they create using supplies they got from us.

some of my favorites:

 

SpaceDog Studios on etsy made this brilliant book (i LOVE it!) after buying this set of vintage embroidered quilt blocks, circa 1930, from our shop:

 

lovely 1800s/Civil war Repro fabrics became dresses for a Kirsten doll:

 

last week a wonderful customer bought this fabric from the "Ink Well" collection by Judie Rothermel to use as sashing for an antique quilt top that she is re-making:

 

and shared her inspiring blog: Q is for quilter

the story of the quilt top starts here

a male quilter from the Netherlands purchased a custom fat quarter bundle:

and shared his blog so that i could see the grandmother's flower garden quilt he needed the fabric for:

what i like least about our shops is that my quilting and creative time is more limited, but i feel that is compensated by the beautiful inspiration i receive.

back to school

it has been a ridiculously & somewhat embarrassingly long time since i posted. this summer has been incredibly full and amazing, and time has gotten away from me. i have neglected my blog, and everyone else's too. but school started today, and i am finding myself with just susie grace in the morning, and peace and quiet in the afternoon while she naps, so i anticipate finding some time to think, clean the house, and hopefully blog.

this morning before school.... the little ones' hair hadn't been combed yet because they leave for school much later than the bigger ones. we now have: a senior, a junior, a 3rd grader, and a kindergartner.

little man has been counting down the days until kindergarten starts ever since preschool graduation on May 8th. i love having my kids home with me, but this little one, and his sister just older need a lot more stimulation and social interaction that their older sisters did. is it just personality differences, i find myself wondering, or is it because they are different genders from each other and have a 3 year space, rather than a one year space. is it combination of these differences, or is there more to it? or less?

my kindergartner needed a pillow and blanket for rest time. i wanted to make him something that made him feel very loved and very cozy.

first i picked out some bright and lively blues and greens, but then remembered these flannels i have in my shop - woolies and shadowplay flannels from maywood. it was a delight to put this together. and now my mind is full of more possibilities for these fabrics. i made a small pillow case from the red and cream windowpane plaid print.

etsy

etsy is so much more fun than i ever anticipated! we've been surprised to find ourselves shipping packages off to germany, australia, the netherlands, japan, and three to the UK. i feel back in touch with my antique quilt business in japan, which is a happy feeling. and i'm meeting the nicest, most interesting, incredibly creative and talented people.

one of them has me feeling very inspired.
she is expecting her eighth baby, has two fun etsy shops -

check out the adorable scripture bags on this one,
 
she also homeschools, and has a fabulous blog.
i feel honored that she is using my "squares & stripes forever" quilt kit

as a give-away prize on her blog.

a few more shops that i love:

drawingroom's shop

sweet nellie's shop

lexi is loving this:
DanaCastle's shop

look to right-hand column to see my featrued and most recent etsy shop listings.